Far Cry 3 is the upcoming sequel to the 2008video gameFar Cry 2. It is currently in development and is due to be released September 4th 2012 in North America, and September 6th in Europe.

Far Cry 3 takes place on a tropical island found somewhere at the intersection of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. However, Patrick Redding, a Ubisoft story designer, mentioned that an Antarctic setting is a possibility for future games. The main goal of the game is to escape from the islands (as there will be more than one, mentioned by Dan Hay) and their crazed inhabitants. [Source]

Story:

Far Cry 3 returns the series to a tropical setting, similar to the first game. Players will assume the role of protagonist Jason Brody, a tourist who has been stranded on an island chain in the grips of violent local conflict for years. Jason has been separated from his girlfriend and, in his search for her, developers have stated he will have to deal with a wide cast of mostly unstable characters who have been trapped on these islands for some time. In the short demo trailer that was the first footage released of the game in development, Jason interacts with one such character, named Vaas (voice, mocap and facial motion capture by Michael Mando), who gives an unsettling monologue about the nature of insanity before trying to drown Jason by anchoring him to a cinder block and throwing him into a natural pool of water that has clearly been used repeatedly for this purpose. Early developer interviews provided little about Jason's backstory, aside from the fact that he possesses a strong skillset as a combatant and survivalist that give him a fighting chance in the desperate circumstances he constantly finds himself in during the events of the game. More recent interviews have hinted at a change to the story in that Jason is now emphasized to be a man out of his element, with no particular training who just happens to be caught up in the island's chaos as he searches for his friends. At the same time, the story will try to invoke that after a time trapped on the island, it will start to have an effect on the protagonist, showing another side of Jason's personality, according to producer Dan Hay. Developers have also stated that the intended tone of the game will be one of realism and intensity and an attempt to invoke a visceral and constant feeling of danger in the player. [Source]

I think it looks pretty decent. Definitely some interesting bad guys. I'll probably get it. And the ship at the start of the third video looks like it was taken straight out of Far Cry 1.

Looks far more interresting than FarCry2. Looks like they are taking more from the original one than the second one.

Indeed. It looks like they're finally going back to an island locale which is something I hoped Far Cry 2 would do. One thing I took notice of was the graphics. The shadows weren't that good but everything else was surprisingly good considering it's an open-world game. You can check out the screenshots here. The animations were also very good.

EDIT: It looks like Far Cry 3 is using CryENGINE 3 (see here). This explains the sudden jump in image and animation quality over Far Cry 2 which used the Dunia engine.

The dunia engine was great, just play the Avatar game, some of the most details environments this generation. But Far Cry 3 does look good, far better than the second, which was only good for MP, SP was bad.

The dunia engine was great, just play the Avatar game, some of the most details environments this generation. But Far Cry 3 does look good, far better than the second, which was only good for MP, SP was bad.

I did a bit of research and the only mention of CryENGINE 3 is on the Far Cry 3 wiki page. I'm beginning to think that it's a heavily-updated version of the Dunia engine with bits from CryENGINE 1.

If it has that freakin' DRM, I ain't buyin' it

I really hope it doesn't. Ubisoft has the chance to release a decent PC title.

this game looks better by the minute. time to upgrade the PC, go to 16GB, Athlon II X4 to Phenom II X6, maybe get a 7870 or even GTX 680 if i can afford one...between Sony and MS going all "there's no future" on us and so many games lined up it's defo looking to be a good year for PC gaming.

A European trailer for Far Cry 3 indicates that early buyers will earn themselves the Lost Expeditions Edition. Americans can also access this content by pre-ordering from various retailers.

This features additional single-player missions in the form of Ignition in the Deep and The Forgotten Experiment. According to Ubisoft, these missions add 40 minutes to the campaign, which sounds about right given Far Cry 2's structure. A flare-gun (which fires 10-gauge shells) for use in the online multiplayer comes included as well.

Details for The Forgotten Experiment are as follows: "Trapped inside a forgotten research facility, your only way out is through the crumbling ruins. To escape, you'll have to activate the old experiments and unleash an electronic storm that could be the end of you."

Meanwhile, in Ignition in the Deep: "Inside an abandoned military silo, the only thing standing between you and freedom are Vaas' pirates and a forgotten missile leaking a lake of fuel."

The American version of the same trailer says pre-ordering Far Cry 3 from Gamestop nets players a code for the Monkey Business Pack. It includes four more missions "hosted by Hurk and his bomb-carrying monkeys." This sounds a bit more tongue-in-cheek than the story's darker, mature themes, as do the unspecified "two bonus ways to humiliate your friends" in multiplayer.

Last month, I posted a preview of Far Cry 3 that covered what I half-jokingly called the game's "split personalities." It was a subject that I found really interesting: the way this game is trying to find harmony between seemingly contradictory game design ideas to establish a unique experience. One thing I didn't mention in that preview, however, was that seeing Far Cry 3 for the first time landed that game right near the top of my list of most anticipated games of 2012. It's a game I'm very much looking forward to…despite the abundance of questions I still have about it. Here's what I've been asking myself about Far Cry 3 ever since that chilly afternoon in Montreal when I watched a virtual backpacker go to town on an armed militia:Is Jason Brody really an everyman? Does it even matter?

Ubisoft wants us to believe that Jason Brody, the game's backpacker-turned-hero, is just a normal guy caught in a nasty situation. They're very keen to stress that he's someone we can all relate to, not some Navy SEAL or SAS operative. But look at footage of Jason planting a throwing knife in an enemy's head from 10 feet away, and you can't help but think that this guy is an awfully quick learner. It makes me wonder whether Jason's everyman status is a genuine part of the gameplay experience or just a dash of backstory that ends at the opening cinematic. I'd love it if Far Cry 3 let us play through the learning process of someone unfamiliar with firearms or advanced survival techniques, but I'm not so sure that will end up being the case.

At the same time, though, how much does that really matter in the end? I certainly couldn't relate to Gordon Freeman's Ph.D. in theoretical physics from MIT, or the BioShock guy's, umm, whatever it is the BioShock guy was. Being able to relate to the main character is nice, but it's certainly not the only path to a great game.

How has the new blood affected Far Cry 3?

Ubisoft Montreal is a massive studio with the luxury of moving big chunks of staff from one project to another. A lot of the talent working on Far Cry 3 came over to the project after work wrapped up on Splinter Cell: Conviction and the various Assassin's Creed games. That's why the makeup of the Far Cry 3 team intrigues me. I'm curious how much influence will be carried over from those projects. Splinter Cell's stealth mechanics and Assassin's Creed's fluid controls are a few pie-in-the-sky potentials, but more likely those influences will show up in relatively subtle ways. It's going to be interesting to see how this turns out.

If everyone on this island is crazy, is there an anchor to reality?

One of the interesting hooks about the setting of Far Cry 3 is the island's maddening effect on its inhabitants. Everyone there is just a little bit off, and even Jason looks like he's not immune to the occasional descent into madness. You kind of get the sense that no one can be trusted, and everything you see has to be taken with a hefty grain of salt. But if that's the case, is there any sort of anchor we can latch onto to maintain our sense of what's real and what's not? Our own little totem from Inception? After all, there's a fine line between a good plot twist and just stringing players along, so hopefully Far Cry 3 gives us a way to put all that craziness into perspective.

Does the multiplayer stand a chance?

There's a long list of great first-person shooters saddled with throwaway multiplayer modes that are clearly tacked on as a back-of-the-box selling point. In fact, that's probably most first-person shooters these days. And then there are games like Far Cry 2 that offer a really well-made, feature-rich multiplayer component (even the console versions had a map editor!) in addition to an already great single-player campaign. Yet for as good as the multiplayer was in Far Cry 2, you'd be hard pressed to argue that it ever really took off in a meaningful way. Why? Well, go to GameStop and look at everyone picking up copies of Call of Duty, Battlefield, or Halo. There's your audience of online shooter fans.

If there's one thing Skyrim showed us last year, it's that the market for single-player games is far from dead. And while Skyrim and Far Cry 3 are different genres, they do share some similarities in their massive open-world landscapes. Far Cry 3's multiplayer could very well end up being great--but does it even need multiplayer to succeed?

How long will the novelty of exploration last?

When it comes to the thrill of exploration, every open-world game has its own distinct shelf life. Twenty-five hours into Grand Theft Auto IV, I was still driving myself to each mission instead of fast-traveling via taxicab because that game's version of New York City was so richly detailed that it was simply a pleasure to traverse its streets and alleyways. But not all open-world games maintain the novelty for so long. With most sandbox games, you eventually hit that point where there are no secrets left to discover or hidden details waiting to be found--you've seen it all during the first half of the game, and you spend the second half fast-traveling at every opportunity. Or in the case of Far Cry 2, the world offers much to see and explore, but it makes the act of driving around such a hostile endeavor (thanks, militia checkpoints!) that you wind up fast-traveling even though you don't really want to. At least that was the case for me.

I have no doubt that Far Cry 3's lush and beautiful tropical island will be a pleasure to explore at first. But how long will that last? It's impossible to predict the level of tedium that sets in with these sorts of games until you've spent five or 10 hours engrossed in their worlds. Here's hoping this game gives you reasons to get off the beaten path whether you're in the first act or nearing the final mission.